Purses from Old Sweaters

Here are two purses I finished recently.  I've been cleaning my sewing room and decided to use any odds and ends.  I already had the handles and the sweater was from a friend.  I wish you could feel this sweater, it is amazingly soft!  Like butter.  I'm guessing angora or cashmere?

So I washed it and dried it and used the bottom band for the left purse.  The right purse is from the neck.  Both are lined in cotton.  Here are complete instructions. 

Feline Friday

I knew this would happen eventually- I would have an incredibly busy week with sick people at home and now I'm sick too.  I won't go into the gory details.  So here are photos of my muses! 

Alice & Emma sharing the same box.  Aah, sisterly love!

Artsy pic of them behind a curtain.

Alice's eye.  This is the first thing I see when I wake up.

I like to think Emma was just having a friendly chat with our pet rat, but you never can tell...

Tea Cozy

At a recent sewing guild meeting, Val Saholsky showed us a charming collection of tea cozies.  Some tied to the tea pot to keep it warm and others just sat over it until needed.  I started thinking about my plain pink tea pot at home and how much it would really like a cozy!  I started my cozy using Val's pattern, but quickly realized that my pot is much smaller and the handle is on top instead of off the back.  I had to modify the pattern.  I did use her instructions of placing padding in the bottom like a hot pad.  I used wool scraps for the pad.

The ties run through casings.   

Feline Friday

Sorting through my stash, this idea evolved.  Once I had finished, I decided it looks like a cat with an eye mask- Bandit Kitty!  The strap is reused from another purse, trim is faux suede, upholstery fabric.  I lined it with cotton.   

Free Motion Quilting

Here is my February free motion quilting exercise.  The guest expert was Diane Gawdynski.  (See my side bar for the challenge info).  I had a tough time with this.  I still need more practice to smooth out my curves.  After I did the feathers, they reminded me of ferns so I added a few woodland mushrooms!

Feline Friday

My daughter takes an advanced 6th grade art class at school that she had to apply to be accepted.  I am very honored that she wants me to do projects with her in my own sketchbook!  So here are a few recent assignments.  Notice how I sneak cats into each one! 

The one above is a colored pencil drawing of love, hate, sadness and passion. 

Find the flame kitty that leaped into the drawing by surprise.

This assignment involved words that we then had to collage to illustrate them.  There is a cat whisker glued on the dry grass the bird is perched on and the two cuddling kitties illustrating envelope(d in an embrace) and intent (on an afternoon nap).

This needed to be a drawing of my dream house, which of course includes lots of cats- 6 to be exact.  I would love a big old Victorian house with a screened porch,

lovely garden and a big sunny sewing room! 

Working in different mediums on assignments really keeps the creative juices flowing.  It reminds me of being back in art school. 

Fabric Fortune Cookies

Great for Chinese New Year or anytime!  I sewed these for Valentine's Day.  I am going to hide a love note in each one.  The spaceships are for my son, a pretty stripe for my daughter, and hot kitty fabric for hubby.  Thank you Mollie for the tutorial !   

Feline Friday- Patchwork Cat

This is a first for me.  I designed a quilt picture using graph paper.  A friend had given me a whole bunch of 3" fabric squares.  Some cottons, some upholstery fabrics.  It was fun laying them out and getting it all just right.  So here she is: "Calico and Blue Sky". 

I would say it is Alice, but then Emma would get jealous (and vice versa!).  I am quite pleased, but now what do I do with it?  Wall hanging?  Pillow?  What?